Removal of formaldehyde pollutant from petroleum industry wastewaters by polymers: A molecular dynamics simulation

Abstract

Formaldehyde is one of the most widely used chemical pollutants, which is used as a toxic substance in the wastewater from many industrial processes, including oil and petrochemical industries, dyeing, glue and resin making, textile, etc. Therefore, it is necessary to treat the waste produced before entering the environment. Thus, choosing a suitable method that can be used to remove these toxic pollutants is one of the most important challenges in the discussion of wastewater treatment in oil and petrochemical industries. There are various methods to treat these wastes. But surface adsorption can be used as one of the efficient methods to remove formaldehyde from wastewater. In this regard, in this work, the interaction between formaldehyde and polymers has been investigated using the accuracy of molecular dynamics simulation in the simulation of intermolecular interaction. Polymer polypropylene (pp) was represented as the best polymer for removing formaldehyde from wastewater with the highest intermolecular interaction energy. The reported results might present the suitable conditions for the polymers applications for the treatment of petroleum and petrochemical industry wastewater from formaldehyde.